Literally "black soil" is a type of very dark, fertile manmade (anthropogenic) soil found in the Amazon Basin.

It is also known as "Amazonian dark earth" or "Indian black earth".

STARVATION IS OVER FOREVER!

BRING ME CHARCOAL

​AND I WILL BRING YOU ALL YOU CAN EAT!

The Secret of Eldorado / Terra Preta

​In this documentary a legendary civilization thought to be too good to be true on the basis of the stories told by the Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana, is found to be a real part of history.

We can separate fact from fiction here, in that the golden riverbanks the Spaniard told of, were not golden as with precious metal strewn along them, but with something far more precious; CROPS ! Delve into one of the most important facets of the past you will probably ever discover in this SIX PART extravaganza.

It is a wonder headlines like

CULTIVATION SHOCK: STARVATION IS OVER FOREVER or GOLD ?

BRING ME CHARCOAL AND I WILL BRING U ALL U CAN EAT!

Did not appear immediately, and the governments of every nation brought together in celebration.

Two words .. .. TERRA PRETA!

One mission . . . CULTIVATE IT & REAP A PARADISE! TURN DESERT INTO A GARDEN!

Harmony and Balance

Some people have seen an opportunity for commercialization of this wonder of God's grace, and actually grow high energy crops especially for charcolization. While this is viable & maybe with reasonably amiable intentions, it misses the ultimate goal that the people of El Dorado/ the Amazon basin rainforest pre-Columbus found themselves ahead of practically the rest of the world by: harmony and balance with their environment.

They did not 'waste' their organic matter, their left-overs of daily life, they kept it all in the cycle and with a twist of ingenuity found a way for their 'waste' to actually become their most valuable means of survival.

​If we do not harness this same opportunity today, God's wrath shall find us in the form of our very own failure at life and we will probably all be dead within a couple of hundred years, with only a few 'survivor' mutant 'elites', who suffer from nano-bot viruses that cause them to continually punch themselves where it hurts the most, and eventually they will not be able to reproduce with their relatives anymore, and mankind will fizzle out none too soon.

We should use REED BEDS to process our WASTE and then harvest the reed beds - in their entirety - for production of TERRA PRETA.

This way within a couple of hundred years, ALL THE SOIL could be TERRA PRETA and there would be no malnutrition, while we could rest under the shade of trees that grow taller, and pick their fruits that ripen fuller than ever before.

​Some may call this idealism, and I call their lack of imagination, idiotism. Here's to the magic of life, and the end of strife.

It is also known as "Amazonian dark earth" or "Indian black earth". In Portuguese its full name is terra preta do índio or terra preta de índio ("black soil of the Indian", "Indians' black earth"). Terra mulata ("mulatto earth") is lighter or brownish in colour.[1]

Homemade terra preta, with charcoal pieces indicated using white arrowsTerra preta owes its characteristic black color to its weathered charcoal content,[2] and was made by adding a mixture of charcoal, bone, and manure to the otherwise relatively infertile Amazonian soil.

A product of indigenous soil management and slash-and-char agriculture,[3] the charcoal is very stable and remains in the soil for thousands of years, binding and retaining minerals and nutrients.[4][5]

Terra preta is characterized by the presence of low-temperature charcoal residues in high concentrations;[2]

While deforested arable soils in the Amazon are productive for just a short period of time, and farmers are constantly moving to new areas and clearing more land,[8][9] the terra preta soil is less prone to nutrient leaching caused by heavy rains and floods because of its high concentration of charcoal, microbial life and organic matter; accumulating nutrients, minerals, and microorganisms.

Terra preta soils are of pre-Columbian nature and were created by humans between 450 BCE and 950 CE.[10][11] The soil's depth can reach 2 meters (6.6 ft).

​Thousands of years after its creation, it has been reported to regenerate itself at the rate of 1 centimeter (0.39 in) per year[12] by the local farmers and caboclos in Brazil's Amazonian basin, who seek it for use and for sale as valuable potting soil.

Most carbon in the soil is lost as greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide, CO2) into the atmosphere if natural ecosystems are converted to agricultural land. Soils contain 3.3 times more carbon than the atmosphere and 4.5 times more than plants and animals on earth (1).

This makes soils an important source of greenhouse gases but also a potential sink if right management is applied. The use of crop residues for bio-energy production reduces the carbon stocks in cropland. Further the dedication of cropland to bio-fuel production increases the area of cultivated land and thus carbon loss from soils and vegetation.

Pyrolysis of waste biomass can generate fuels and biochar recalcitrant against decomposition. If biochar is returned to agricultural land it can increase the soil’s carbon content permanently and would establish a carbon sink for atmospheric CO2. In this case the use of crop residues as a potential energy source may improve soil quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a complementary not competing way.

Biochar is proposed as a soil amendment in environments with low carbon sequestration capacity and previously depleted soils (especially in the Tropics). From previous studies it is known that soil biochar amendments increase and maintain soil fertility (2) and the human-made Terra Preta soils in the Ama-zon prove that infertile soils can be transformed into fertile soils and long term carbon enrichment is feasible even in environments with low carbon sequestration capacity (3).

Throughout the world intensive agriculture often has resulted in soil physical and chemical degradation, to due erosion and higher output than input rates of nutrients and OM.

In contrast, the intentional and unintentional deposition of nutrient-rich materials within human habitation sites and field areas has in many cases produced conditions of heightened fertility status (Woods 2003). Biochar was also used in agriculture in the past (Allen 1846; Ogawa 1994; Ogawa 2008).

Terra Preta soils in the Amazon are among the most prominent examples of human enriched soils. Sustainable soil fertility management is a major constraint in the humid tropics and is probably one reason for Terra Preta’s high degree of public awareness.

​Further the difference between Terra Preta and ordinary soils in its vicinity is striking. In contrast to yellow or reddish Ferralsols the Terra Preta is dark (black). Terra Preta is rich in calcium and phosphate.

These two elements are scarce in the Amazon basin and its presence alters fertility and ecology of the landscape distinctly. Terra Preta has an elevated pH in comparison to the surrounding soils (Ferralsols, Acrisols, and Arenosols) which are acidic with toxic levels of exchangeable aluminum (Glaser and Birk 2012). Current major environmental threats such as deforestation and global warming contribute to Terra Preta’s wide public perception.

Its existence proofs that long-lasting soil fertility improvements and carbon sequestration is possible, even under the most unfavorable circumstances (fast mineralization and leaching) and gives rise to hope to overcome these environmental challenges. Terra Preta may offer an opportunity to learn from the past and improve our current wasteful material flow management (Steiner and Taylor 2010). / Read more...

Soil Charcoal Amendments (agrichar or biochar)

maintain Soil Fertility and establish a Carbon Sink

The existence of an anthropogenic and carbon (C) enriched dark soil in different parts of the world and especially in Amazonia (Amazonian Dark Earths (ADE) or Terra Preta de Índio) proves that the predominant Ferralsols and Acrisols can be transformed into fertile soils. Charcoal formation and deposition in soils seems to be a promising option to transfer an easily decomposable biomass into refractory soil organic matter (SOM) pools.

The production of charcoal for soil amelioration purposes (slash and char) out of the aboveground biomass (secondary forest and crop residues) instead of converting it to carbon dioxide (CO2) through burning (slash and burn) could establish a C sink and could be an important step towards sustainability and SOM conservation in tropical agriculture.

On a global scale, crop residue biomass represents a considerable problem as well as new challenges and opportunities. Bio-char soil management systems can deliver tradable C emissions reduction, and C sequestered is easily accountable, and verifiable.

​The described mixture of driving forces and technologies has the potential to use residual waste carbon-rich residues to reshape agriculture, balance carbon and address nutrient depletion.